Tuesday, 20 February 2018

My sister
and I visited Portugal between the end of October and early November 2017.

Before we
made the choice, I had three options - Hungary, Austria and Portugal. She chose
Portugal and we were more than pleased that we went with that choice.

Around
October, winter starts to say hello but Portugal was bright and sunny. My
sister who lived in England at the time was so excited about the sun. Coming from Nigeria,
I was pleased that the sun was not as hot!

We arrived
Lisbon from London and were picked up by our super amazing host. We used CouchSurfing
while we were in Lisbon. From our research on Lisbon, we saw that there was a
lot to do. Having a local guide is always helpful and that’s one of the
advantages of CS when I’m going to a city where I do not know anyone.
From the minute he picked us up, we knew we made the right choice. He was warm,
chatty and even took us around to see a bit of the city before driving home.

Friday, 9 February 2018

I was chewing rice and bit on a stone, I felt my tooth break and next thing, I had a piece of my tooth on my palm. I didn't realise that rice here needed thorough washing as there are stones in them. I had only been here for a week when this happened. Oh, I learnt the hard way!

There is no dentist in Kibondo. Thankfully, there was no pain. I was due to go to Dar es Salaam a week from when my tooth broke so I would see a dentist then.

After looking in my mouth and doing some examination, the dentist told me the tooth was infected. It broke in a way that it could only be saved with a root canal filling. I had one of those years ago and it didn't end well. That tooth broke again and had to be extracted. She assured me that it would not be the case, as I would need to put a crown on the tooth to protect it.

Friday, 2 February 2018

I was going to write this as fiction which would have had additions and I would have had to make some parts not so bad, but what's the point?

I have a friend who was a victim of domestic abuse. For way too long, if I might add. When it started at first, she was shy to say so. Then it progressed, she was trapped in a cycle that she could not seem to get out of. I remember her reaching out to me one evening because she simply wanted to talk. One of the things she said that made my heart stop for her was "I don't like the person I have become and I can't seem to help it because I love him".

There is the danger of a single story but in this case, I unfortunately cannot reach the other party and have no intention to try. I am writing this with my friend's consent. Please note that there is so much that has been omitted for privacy reasons but this is the nicest of all the ugliness of that relationship. So here are some of the incidents she told me about as I remember:

Sunday, 28 January 2018

I was asked recently if I have had any bad travel
experiences! I laughed at this question as I would be lying if I said all my
trips always go smoothly.

I will give two instances of some of my travel woes.

In April 2015, my friend and I went to Thailand. I wrote about it here and here. We travelled with Turkish Airlines and the trip going was fine, but
I can’t say the same about the return leg.

We sat in front of the noisiest set of
passengers who seemed to be having a conversation with the whole plane. It made
the 11 hour flight uncomfortable. At some point, they gathered around and I had
a guy standing over me and adjusting and doing God knows what with his belt and
zipper, Ugh! We asked them if they could keep their voices down at some point, but
they quickly resumed their noisy chat. We hardly got any sleep.

Saturday, 20 January 2018

For the kind of work I do, I prefer eating something dry, devoid of any form of spices when I am out working on the field. I work in sometimes difficult terrains to navigate where bumpiness is normal as there might be only dirt roads.
I live on these crackers and apples (when they are available) on the field. I could find these easily anywhere in Nigeria. However, the last time I worked in another country, the 2 packs I took with me from Nigeria finished quite quickly as I was on the field much more than I was in the office.

Wednesday, 20 December 2017

We were woken
by the sound of rain and our puppies crying in the wee hours of the morning.

The
puppies were born in October (8 of them) and it has been dry since then. The rainy season stopped at the end of September and harmattan kicked in since October.

We kept the puppies in
the garage at night time but they didn’t like that, they would cry a lot and
have us tend to them to calm them down at different points in the night.

Thinking
that they might have wanted to spend the night outside, we put them in a cage that gives
them a good view of the garden, hoping that would do the trick, but no! They
would wail all night.

So we took the bold step to let them roam free in the
compound at night. They had the older dogs, their parents, there to hang out
with, so that seemed to have done the trick.

The puppies
had never seen or known rain so when we heard the 'strange' sound of rain, we were tempted to run out and get them to a
dry place, but figured that it would be best to let them learn from the older
dogs.

As an
individual aware of the times and weather, this has never happened. Rain in December, during harmattan? It is a
first!

All this
got me thinking…

Change they
say is constant, even the climate has to take part in the change.

We voted
for change in Nigeria and have indeed had change.

2017 has
been different, it has been one interesting, challenging and intrigue filled year.

2018 is
just round the corner and I am happy for the big change I am walking into.

Do you
smell Christmas already?!

My very
best wishes to you and yours this Christmas and I hope 2018 brings the best kind
of change that we all hope for.